Foreman Jerry Stack found the 12 cows, two calves and bull in an open pasture on Thursday morning. The animals were all humpbacked Brahmans, the only kind of cattle raised on the ranch. [link to www.cattlenetwork.com]

A man driving by the Junks' farm in Franklin Township Thursday morning knocked on their front door to tell them that lightning had hit a tree on the property. The tree, a 55-foot-high wild cherry that has been on the farm for the 30 years the Junks have lived there, was split to the ground. Around its base, about 150 yards away from the house, lay 14 brown and white cows, two male and 12 female, dead from the lightning strike.